A report issued Thursday by the Arkansas Department of High Education on students who received Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarships — funded by proceeds from the state’s lottery — during the 2010-11 school year showed students at Arkansas Tech University are retaining scholarships at higher rates than other universities around the state.

In 2011, 1,823 Arkansas Tech recipients, or 65.55 percent, renewed their scholarships. Of the rest, 18.41 percent of students did not renew their scholarships — meaning they did not meet continuing eligibility requirements — and 16.04 percent of recipients completed their scholarship eligibility by graduating or reaching 130 semester hours.

The average high school GPA for those renewing their scholarships was 3.57, and the average college GPA was 3.29. For those who completed their scholarships, the average high school GPA was 3.58 and the average college GPA was 3.37. Those who did not renew had an average high school GPA of 3.10 and an average college GPA of 2.00

Tech’s students fared better than average among attendees of public four-year universities, where the state average for students who did not renew their scholarships was 20.63.

At University of the Ozarks, 130 students, or 71.04 percent, renewed their academic challenge scholarships. Of the remainder, 10.38 percent completed their scholarship eligibility and 18.58 did not renew.

Of the scholarship recipients, the average high school GPA at the University of Ozarks was 3.57 for those who renewed their scholarship, 3.52 for those who completed it and 3.02 for those who did not renew. Average college GPA was 3.21 for students both completing and renewing scholarships and 1.60 for students who did not renew.

The university’s numbers, however, were higher than average in the state among private four-year institutions, which averaged only 14.66 students who did not renew their scholarships.

Both Tech and the University of Ozarks had a higher percentage of students renewing scholarships than the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, which had 1,058 students, or 19.65 percent, who did not renew. At University of Central Arkansas, 20.37 percent of recipients did not renew their scholarships, though at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, only 17.23 percent of students did not renew.